NEW START: A religious leader makes an offering during celebrations of the New Year in Tiwanaku, Bolivia. The Aymara, one of the largest indigenous groups in the region, celebrate new year on the winter solstice, the start of the new agricultural cycle.Juan Karita

Doctors agree a moderate level of sun plays an important role in mood and physical health.

In places where the body cannot produce enough vitamin D because of poor winter sunlight, people need supplements to keep their bones healthy, while here we simply need to step out for an uncovered 10 minutes on a sunny day.

But for traditional people, winter solstice meant much more than a reminder to get sufficient quantities of a then unknown vitamin.

"It's part of the cycle of dark into light," said Southern Cross University's Dr Angela Coco who lectures on traditional religions. She said our psyche has parallels with the planting season.

The principle of "as above, so below" is at work, so whatever is happening in the cosmos is happening within the person, she said.

"When it's dark, we go inward, and as the light emerges we put those insights into practice, just like planting seeds."

Here in the Northern Rivers, the Lismore Lantern Parade has become our unofficial winter solstice celebration, and has much in common with the age-old solstice rituals.

Weather outlook:

Don't get your hopes up that it's the end of winter - even though the days get longer, the latter months of winter are the coldest as our hemisphere adjusts its climate to the changing impact of the sun.

Weather outlook

Today: Cloudy, scattered showers, with southerly winds and a max of 17